Best Action Movies of 1930

World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but he soon is promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.

Ruby is a counter girl at the San Diego Soda Shop with a habit of being a girlfriend to Sailors stopping by. Things get a little zany when she sets her eyes on Bull's Eye McCoy a gunner who refuses to settle down.

This third film version of Rex Beach's rugged Yukon novel The Spoilers was also the first talkie adaptation. This time, Gary Cooper and William "Stage" Boyd are cast as gold prospector Glennister and crooked Alaska politician McNamara.

Made during the early days of sound cinema, this tense submarine adventure is an intriguing example of a hybrid silent-talkie. A disgraced English sub commander changes his name to Burke and joins the American Navy. When the U.S. submarine on which he is serving as a torpedo launcher begins to sink, Burke must make the ultimate sacrifice to save as many crew men as possible..

Nora Mason becomes entangled in a family mix-up of murder and scandal that threatens to ruin her career and entire future; Unless the mother she does not know can find a way to save her.

An expedition enters an area of the Congo jungle to investigate reports of a gorilla-worshipping tribe.

Four one-for-all and all-for-one privates in the French Foreign Legion are all in jail for disorderly conduct, but they break out and rejoin their regiment and fight off a band of marauding Arabs, and are soon in Casablanca getting decorated by the French Minister of War. Deucalion spots Eleanor, a spy who had done him dirt and after tangling with the local gendarmes, they take her and head back for Morocco where they are charged with desertion, and have to go out and defeat some more marauding natives, and dodge the machine-gun fire directed at them by the highly-displeased Eleanor, and one thing just follows another.

Racecar-driver Lou Larrigan gets mixed up with a crooked gang of racetrack promoters, and is in love with Ruth Morgan, whose father is marked as a victim by the gang.

The sister of a sponge diver killed by a stingray loves an escaped convict posing as a priest.

Ted is riding for Pa Martin against Cooper in the big race. When Cooper has his men capture Ted, Peggy overhears them and sets out to free Ted in time for the race.

A cowboy looking for his missing father, poses as an outlaw and joins the gang he thinks is responsible.

The south sea island Tonga is full of plantations and scoundrels. Ellen Bradford arrives expecting marriage to respectable and successful plantation owner only to find he is a drunk and gambler. Being the only white woman she is the desire of scoundrels and cut-throats.

Buck Duane avenges his father's murder by gunning down the killer, but must flee from the law. He finds Ruth, whom he once loved, in the clutches of the outlaw Bland. In rescuing Ruth, he becomes entangled with Bland's amorous wife.

Summoned to Shadow Ranch by his friend Ranny Williams, Sim Baldwin arrives to find Ranny has been ambushed and murdered. Sim learns ranch owner Ruth Cameron is under pressure to sell out to Dan Blake, as the dam on the ranch controls the town's water supply. Vowing to avenge his old friend's death, Sim takes up Ruth's fight and incurs Blake's hostility.

Cowboy fights to keep his ranch after oil is discovered on it.

Mexican-bandit Montero and his deaf-mute sidekick Coloso are being pursued through the sand-dunes of southern Arizona by lawman Bob-Cat Manners and his posse. Montero has intentions of robbing the bank owned by skinflint Lucius Perkins, but is sidetracked by the attractions of singing-teacher Helen Wardell. He learns that Perkins has marital designs on Helen and holds the mortgage on her ranch. But Helen is in love with Bill Howard. Perkins offers Montero money to kill his rival.

After being shot, a dying Marshal Dawson gives Dave Hayes his badge and asks him to finish his job. Dave becomes Marshal but when Bowie, the man that shot Dawson appears, he exposes Dave as an imposter. Dave is then in trouble when Edwards incites the mob to lynch him.

A tense WWI spy thriller in which Colonel Duncan Grant (British star Brian Aherne, in his first talking role), parachutes into Germany to gather intelligence on the enemy’s secret ‘W Plan’ and to assist Allied POWs in digging escape tunnels.

In the Kentucky mountains, Ken McTavish comes to Kettle Creek looking for the killer of his father. When he learns that it was Abner Harland, he fakes the killing of his friend Rusty, puts Abner in a coffin, and takes off. Lem Harland, seeing Rusty alive, realizes what happened and the chase is on.

A prospector is murdered by The Cactus Kid and his gang, who hope to find the murdered man's goldmine. The miner's dog, Rin-Tin-Tin, recognizes the killers, who thereafter seek to use the dog to locate the lost mine. With the help of a government agent and a young girl, Rinty saves the mine and brings the bad guys to justice.

A variety of broad-painted and unlikely characters are trapped in an underground café when a Mississippi River levee breaks and causes flood havoc above and below.

El Malo, notorious Mexican bandit, forces the Mayor of Sierra Blanca, Seth Landport, to open the safe and turn over to him 2,000 pesos, which the bandit gives a promissory note for to the Mayor. Seth rushes to the cantina where Sheriff Rankin is drinking, and the sheriff posts a reward for the capture of El Malo. El Malo informs his men of the reward. The bandit and his sidekick, Pedro, visit the cantina where Pedro resumes a former acquaintance with Dolores, while El Malo has his attention directed to a tango being performed by Carmita. El Malo pushes her dancing partner aside and finishes the dance with Carmita. Since Seth's description of him is not accurate, El May visits the sheriff and promises to deliver the wanted bandit to the cantina the following night. THe following morning, El Malo and Pedro depart, and, halting their horses on a hill, view the stagecoach being held up by a trio of outlaws.

Released in both sound and silent versions, this ten-chapter serial starred former cowboy ace Jack Perrin and chapterplay veteran Louise Lorraine.

John Meadham, in charge of a West Africa trading post, wire the home office in London that he is tired and worn out, and they need to send a replacement to take over. The company sends a stiff upper-lipper, Charles Summers, accompanied by his wife, Margaret. An antagonism develops between the two men from the moment Summers arrives.

The story of the firemen at Engine House No.8, where widower Frank "Dad" Brooks is the beloved veteran and whose children, Milly and Jimmie, are especially fond of firemen Dan and "Beauty" Johnson. The problem of the day is concern whether or not Brooks is going to qualify for a pension...until a three-alarm inferno breaks out at the orphanage.

When love came the way of this gentleman crook he turned to the right---only to be caught in the swirling eddy of his criminal past! (original ad)

Mounties O'Malley and Calhoun are sent to see why miners are not returning with their gold. Arriving, they recover the gold from a robbery attempt.

A gangster's wife, fearful that he is about to be murdered by his rivals, tips off the police to his whereabouts in order to save his life. Her husband, however, believes her reason was that she wanted him out of the way so she could have his best friend.

An ironworker and his equally tough friend decide to leave New Orleans to work as beam-walkers on a New York City skyscraper. This arouses the ire of his Cajun girlfriend who promptly shoots at him as he walks away and then follows him to the Big Apple where she becomes a nightclub performer.

In this one cowboy stars Rooseveldt and McDonald enact a rescued damsel plot complete with sword fight.

A drunkard climbs a ladder into a bedroom in the wrong house and gets romantically involved with the woman who lives there.